The art of analytical chemistry has been greatly advanced since biochemistry began emerging as a primary scientific frontier, requiring increasingly sophisticated analytical methods and tools to solve problems. Likewise the medical profession has lent impetus to the growth of analytical chemistry, with its desiderata of both high precision and speed in obtaining results.
To satisfy the needs of the medical profession as well as other expanding technologies, such as the brewing industry, chemical manufacturing, etc., a myriad of analytical procedures, compositions and apparatus have evolved, including the so-called "dip-and-read" type reagent test device. Reagent test devices enjoy wide use in many analytical applications, especially in the chemical analysis of biological fluids, because of their relatively low cost, ease of usability, and speed in obtaining results. In medicine, for example, numerous physiological functions can be monitored merely by dipping a reagent strip test device into a sample of body fluid, such as urine or blood, and observing a detectable response, such as a change in color or a change in the amount of light reflected from or absorbed by the test device.
Many of the "dip-and-read" test devices for detecting body fluid components are capable of making quantitative or at least semiquantitative measurements. Thus, by measuring the response after a predetermined time, an analyst can obtain not only a positive indication of the presence of a particular constituent in a test sample, but also an estimate of how much of the constituent is present. Such test devices provide the physician with a facile diagnostic tool as well as the ability to gage the extent of disease or of bodily malfunction.
Illustrative of such test devices currently in use are products available from the Ames Division of Miles Laboratories, Inc. under the trademarks CLINISTIX, MULTISTIX, KETOSTIX, N-MULTISTIX, DIASTIX, DEXTROSTIX, and others. Test devices such as these usually comprise one or more carrier matrices, such as absorbent paper, having incorporated therein a particular reagent or reactant system which manifests a detectable response, e.g., a color change, in the presence of a specific test sample component or constituent. Depending on the reactant system incorporated with a particular matrix, these test devices can detect the presence of glucose, ketone bodies, bilirubin, urobilinogen, occult blood, nitrite, and other substances. A specific change in the intensity of color observed within a specific time range after contacting the test device with a sample is indicative of the presence of a particular constituent and/or its concentration in the sample. Some of these test devices and their reagent systems are set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,123,443; 3,212,855 and 3,814,668.
Thus, it is customary for reagent test devices to contain more than one reagent bearing carrier matrix, in which each reagent bearing carrier matrix is capable of detecting a particular constituent in a liquid sample. For example, a reagent test device could contain a reagent bearing carrier matrix responsive to glucose in urine and another matrix responsive to ketones, such as acetoacetate, which is spaced from, but adjacent to, the glucose responsive matrix. Such a product is marketed by the Ames Division of Miles Laboratories, Inc. under the trademark KETO-DIASTIX. Another reagent test device marketed by the Ames Division of Miles Laboratories, Inc., N-MULTISTIX, contains eight adjacent reagent incorporated matrices providing analytical measurement of pH, protein, glucose, ketones, bilirubin, occult blood, nitrite, and urobilinogen.
Despite the obvious, time-proven advantages of such multiple reagent test devices as these, misuse can result in misinformation. These multiple analysis tools comprise complex chemical and catalytic systems, each reagent matrix containing an unique reactive system, responsive to its particular analyte. Thus, it is possible, if the reagent test device is misused, for chemicals to be transported by the liquid sample being analyzed from one carrier matrix on the reagent test device to another. Should this happen it is possible for reagents from one carrier matrix to interfere with those of the other so contacted causing unreliable results. Although it is common in the reagent test device industry to provide detailed instructions on how this problem can be minimized, i.e., directions for properly manipulating the reagent test devices by blotting excess fluid, nevertheless ignorance or disregard of these instructions could permit reagents from one matrix to run over onto an adjacent one. Cross-contamination can result in false results. It is the prevention of this "runover" problem that the present invention is primarily directed.
The elimination of runover has been long sought after and the present discovery, which is the cumulation of an extensive research effort, provides a very effective solution to this problem. The present invention also minimizes damage caused by abrasion of the reagent pads during storage and use.